Remember, Remain, & Rescue (Jude 17-23)
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
My name is Spencer and I am one of the pastors here. We are in Jude verses 17 through 23 today. We got this week and next week in Jude and then we will move into the book of Exodus. If you want to follow along in your blue Bible, it's in the seat or around you. It's on page 594 and the text will also be up on the screen, which is bigger now, which I'm excited about, which you can read more clearly. So in sports, one of the big moments in the offseason is when you get the schedule.
You get the schedule, you look at your opponents, and what happens with most teams is that they see one or two opponents and they circle them. Literally or in their minds like this, they get really excited about facing off against those teams and there's more energy that goes into that week of prep. There's more energy that shows up in that game. And what happens with immature teams is when they show up to play that game, well, they do immature things. They get all angsty, a little chatty, extra combative, and they lack the discipline to actually compete like they're supposed to. So I'm a Gamecock fan and for five years I watched the Will Muschamp era of Gamecock football and it was this.
You could tell a couple times a year they would get all worked up for Clemson, who's a rival, or for Kentucky, which has recently become a rivalry, which is really sad for the state of our program. And they get all worked up for these games and they would just get, I mean, there'd be late hits, be mouthing off the whole time, you know. And Kentucky and Clemson are well coached and they were well disciplined and we were not. And it was very abundantly clear and it was painful to watch because we'd be all angsty with all this extra energy, but we couldn't do the basics. We couldn't do, like we couldn't break down and make tackles.
We couldn't complete blocking assignments. We couldn't do the things it takes to actually play the game like you're supposed to. I think everyone can admit that there's a few games a year that you get really excited for and you have a little extra zeal for, but you've got to come back and do the basics. You can't forget that. And I believe that Christians are very much like this. That Christians can get overly angsty about subject matters like false teaching and the corruption of morality, which we've seen in the book of Jude.
That when Christians see this kind of opposition, some of them lose their minds. They go crazy and they start to really focus on the opposition and they get online and they become keyboard warriors and they get on YouTube channels and watch discernment ministries, which for the record is not a thing in the Bible, but there's all over YouTube. You'll see email chains or Facebook posts. It's like, you got to, the Hollywood is out to get our kids and these false teachers are out doing this and we got to, and they get all worked up, become heresy hunters, but they neglect to do the basics. They get so focused on the opposition, they don't read their Bibles, they don't pray, they don't do the things that are good for their souls.
And oftentimes they look more like undisciplined fools than they actually do look like followers of Christ. Now we are certainly called to, as Christians, and as we've clearly seen in Jude, we're called to take this seriously, take sin seriously, take false teaching seriously, but we don't act like undisciplined fools. Now we're at the point in the book of Jude where he spent a lot of time hammering hard after this type of false teaching, after the grace of God that has been perverted in essentiality as we saw in verse 3. Spent a lot of time in this, but now he's going to be real practical in coaching us.
Now what? Now what do you do with that? Now that you know that, what's up? And there's three things that we'll see in this passage today. One of them is a thing we need to know, and two of them are things that we need to do, okay? The first thing we need to know is we need to remember.
And that's what we're going to see. We're called to remember, we're going to walk through what he says. And there's two things that we need to do. We need to remain and to rescue. Now, I don't know if you just saw that, but that was ultra-Baptist, y'all. Three R's.
Three points. Yes. Real practical. Jude's going to coach us up on this. So we're going to see those three things.
All right. Let me jump into the text. We'll pray, and then we'll walk through this piece by piece. Verse 17. But you must remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.
I said to you, in the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions. It is these who cause divisions, worldly people devoid of the Spirit. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. And have mercy on those who doubt. Save others by snatching them out of the fire. To others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh.
So let me pray, and then we'll walk through this together. Father, I pray that you would help us be present right now. I pray that you would help us listen to the Word of God. That it would pierce our hearts. That it would expose what's beneath that needs exposing. And that you would give us the gospel as you give us really good coaching on what to do in a time where there's all types of things that are seeking to tear us apart and tear us down and tear us from you.
May we listen and respond in faith and repentance and obedience and worship. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, so he starts out with the thing that you need to know, and that is you need to remember. You need to remember. So, he says, verse 17, but you must remember beloved.
So he says beloved. We were in, our group was meeting a few weeks ago, and we read all of Jude at once, and someone in our group said, hey, he says beloved like multiple times, over and over and over again. And I was like, that's a great observation. In the midst of a very, very corrective letter, he calls them beloved. It reminds them of who they are in Christ, that you are beloved. You are deeply loved by Jesus.
You are brothers and sisters. Yes, there's all kinds of things in opposition that you are facing. There's false teaching amongst you, but you still are the church of Christ. You are the beloved. But he says, remember, beloved, the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ.
He says, remember what the apostles said and what they predicted, and then he quotes it. He says, in the last time there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions. So, we don't have that saying anywhere in the New Testament. That must have been something the apostles had taught over and over again. Remember, remember this, that there will be, in the last time, scoffers following their own ungodly passions. Very reminiscent of what we saw in verse 3, perverting the grace of our God into sensuality.
That you need to remember this. Now, it's not, we don't see that verbatim in the New Testament. We see that other warnings show up like this in the New Testament. You go to Acts 20, when Paul is encouraging the Ephesian elders. He says, I know that after my departure, fierce wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. And from among your own selves will arise men speaking twisted things to draw away the disciples after them.
So, this is a consistent warning that shows up in the New Testament and the New Testament church. There will be people from the outside that come in to take you away from Jesus. There will be people that rise up from within the church that will seek to lead you away. And so, Jude echoes this with this known teaching. That in the last time, there will be scoffers following their own ungodly passions. And these type of false teachers will cause divisions.
Worldly people devoid of the Spirit. These people will be causing divisions. And you can picture this in these New Testament churches. These New Testament churches that he's writing to. That they come together in their homes. And they're reading the Bible.
And breaking bread together. And having fellowship. And all the good things that the people of God do together. Then all of a sudden, you've got some people who are starting to say different things. Starting to say, I think it's okay. I think God's grace covers us.
I think we actually can explore these types of things. I think we can indulge in these types of things. And all of a sudden, you've got division. You've got other Christians that are saying, no, that's not what the Scriptures teach. That's not what the apostles are teaching. No, we're called to faith and obedience to Christ.
It does not indulge the flesh. You can even see the division happening as people are starting to get influenced by some of these false teachers. And being led away from the faith. Now, that's not hard for us to picture at all 2,000 years later. Because that's very much happening now in the American church. It is very easy for us to picture this type of stuff that is happening.
And if you walk with Jesus long enough, you're going to see this. You're going to see people that claim the name of Christ. Like, I've walked with people that, man, they read their Bibles. They led Bible studies. They led people to Christ. I have people that helped lead me to Christ.
They claimed the name of Jesus. They did all these great things in His name. Then all of a sudden, they fell in love with this present world. And they started to question the Bible in different areas. And they started to push back on things. And then, eventually, they started to cause division.
And I've seen it where churches were divided. If you follow Jesus long enough, you're going to see this. You're going to see ministry leaders that do horrible things. That leave their spouses for younger women in the church. And then try to justify it with the scriptures. You'll see people in your own group that slowly start to fade away.
You press in and say, what's going on? And you realize they moved in with their boyfriend and their girlfriend. And they're sleeping with them. And you're trying to engage them with the scriptures. And they're like, no, I just, and they start justifying their actions. You're going to see this over and over again.
I see this in my former beloved denomination, the United Methodist Church. Which is, I love the UMC. It's where I came to faith. And over the next two years, that entire denomination is going to split in two. Because the power brokers that be in that denomination have very much been doing some of the things that Jude is talking about. You will see this over and over and over again.
And it is hurtful and painful every time you see it. Every time you see someone that you so deeply love walk away from Jesus, it hurts. But what I've seen and noticed is that for some people, it's not just hurt. It crushes their faith. It shakes them to the very foundations of what they believe. I mean, how many people do you know that when you talk to them, they're like, you know, no, I haven't been to church in years.
I mean, I was part of a church back in the day. And the pastor ran off with so-and-so. And there's all this division that happened. And I'm done with that. I don't need that anymore in my life. You hear that over and over and over again.
And I just want to say very clearly, please do not walk away from Jesus because people who were devoid of the Spirit did evil things. Don't ever walk away from Jesus because of that. And more than that, we shouldn't be shocked. That's why he says, remember, remember, this was always going to happen. Remember the predictions of the apostles. This was always going to take place.
There were always going to be people who stirred up division. There were always going to be people that said, false teachers that say horribly evil things that are contrary to the Scriptures. There's always going to be ministry leaders that blow up their lives and blow up their ministries. Just don't be shocked. So, church family, remember this. Remember this.
Like, I mean, listen, I think as elders, the four of us, we have earned your trust. But you don't put faith in us like you put faith in Jesus. I fight with everything in us on this elder team to make sure that we are all following Jesus, that we're all correcting one another in sin, that we're all pressing into the gospel, that we're all putting sin to death. But don't for a second put your full faith in people. We keep our full faith in Christ. Because he's the one that never fails, even though the people might.
Remember the predictions of the apostles. That's the thing you need to know. That's how he sets this up. Know this. Remember the predictions of the apostles. And then he's got two things for us to do.
The first is remain. We need to remain. And then he picks it up in verse 20. He says, So he says, If you want to, with this knowledge now, knowing there will be false teachers that come into the church, that try to steal the flame of faith from you. He says, With this knowledge now you must remain. You must keep yourselves in the love of God.
Now this part is actually really fun to look at in the Greek, in the original language. It's a lot of fun. Especially if you're a nerd. Because there's one main imperative. There's one main commanding statement in this. And that's keep yourselves in the love of God.
That's the main part of this passage. Keep yourselves in the love of God. To remain in the love of God. And the really nerdy fun part is there's three what are called instrumental participles. That's just three phrases that surround it. Okay?
And those three phrases help explain keep yourselves in the love of God. So the command is to keep yourselves in the love of God. And he's like, alright. Now here are three ways to do it. Building, praying, waiting. So let's look at that first one.
Building yourselves up in the most holy, in your most holy faith. If you want to remain in the love of God, you must build yourself up in this most holy faith. Now, that word build is a very specific word choice. It's very clearly pulled from house building, structure building. That's where that word comes from. And the picture here is that if Christ is our firm foundation, okay?
If he is our cornerstone, if he is the solid rock upon which the church of Jesus Christ is built, then we are to build up our most holy faith on that foundation. So what does he mean by build? Well, Jesus explained himself when he taught the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7. In Matthew 7, he said, Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. So that's what it means to build up your faith.
It's to hear the word of God and to do the word of God. As James says, not hears only, but doers. It means that we have to encounter Christ and his word and then be obedient to what his word calls us to. The reality is there's no substitute for them. There isn't. No substitute for regularly encountering God and his word.
Many of you, you know this. I was bivocational as a pastor for years. I did real estate and I was also pastoring here. And a couple years ago I came on full time here. And when I was doing real estate, you know, you go into these new build neighborhoods. You go to new construction.
There's an agent on site. I walk into this neighborhood. There's an agent on site. Start asking them questions about their build. This is like an entry level under $200,000 build, which almost doesn't exist anymore. But, you know, years ago it did.
Four years ago it did. So walking and he's kind of, you know, selling the product. And I said, yeah, well, how does this compare to the neighborhood right down the street? And he said, oh, that neighborhood? He said, I mean, if you want houses that are built with popsicle sticks and glue, sure. You can go check out that neighborhood.
And what was kind of funny was he's kind of right. That builder, I'm not going to mention the builder, but they're kind of known in this area for being the cheapest of the builders. But his whole point was if you want something that ain't solid, if you want something that doesn't have a lot of structure, if you want something that you're not going to really trust, then absolutely go down the road and you can find that. And what happens for Christians is that we hear that we're supposed to read the Bible and we're just like, no, I don't want to prioritize this in my life. And whatever you try to build your faith upon, I mean, build your faith with, it's popsicle sticks and glue.
We fill your days with entertainment. We'll fill our days with sports and Netflix and social media and distractions and all kinds of things. And then we wonder why we're not growing in our faith. I mean, there's good things that you could want to substitute for. I remember people say, like, I don't really, I'm not really big into reading the Bible, but I do really love listening to worship music. And that's how I really encounter God.
And it's like, listen, I love worship music as well. It is good for my soul. But that's not a substitute for the Word of God. It's not a substitute for regularly tasting and seeing that the Lord is good. No podcast, no sermons, no community group discussions. Or a substitute for regularly encountering Christ and His Word.
If we want to grow in our faith, we need to build and build with material that is structurally sound and good. I mean, we say this is kind of a broken record, but I'll keep playing that. Is that we talk to people in our church all the time who just say, listen, I'm, for years I was following Jesus. And then all of a sudden recently I started reading the Bible more regularly and it's changed everything. It's like, yes, you're building with the right tools now. You're building on this, you're building this structure.
You're being wise, not wasting the gift of faith that God has given us. So the first thing he says is building. Building yourselves up in your most holy faith. If you want to remain in the love of God, you're going to be building. And the second thing he says is praying in the Holy Spirit. He says if you want to remain in the love of God, prayer, and specifically praying in the Holy Spirit, needs to be a part of your walk with Christ.
Now what he's teaching there is regular prayer, acknowledging the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Praying in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is at live and at work within us. He empowers us to pray and to pray boldly. When we are too weak, Romans 8 teaches that the Holy Spirit prays on behalf of this. How amazing is that?
That God is praying for us. I mean, the Holy Spirit empowers us to regular prayer, the kind of unceasing, unending prayer that we're called to as Christians. Christians, prayer is vital. If you want to remain in the love of God, you need to be a man or woman who prays. I heard an anecdote years ago. Somebody was reading a bunch of biographies of missionaries and famous pastors.
He just said, look, one common thread you can see through each of their stories is that these men and women prayed. Normative, regular prayer. I mean, prayer is this humbling before the Lord. You cannot see humbling before Him and saying, I want you to handle my life. I want you to give me wisdom. I want you to hear my request.
Oh, Lord, we need that in our life. Regularly praying in the Holy Spirit. Now, real quick, let me address something before we move on. There are some people that look at that and go, wait a second. I heard that praying in the Holy Spirit is praying in tongues. Let me address that very quickly.
And if you want to have a longer conversation about that. Chet Phillips is on vacation. But when he gets back on Tuesday, he would love to talk to you more about this. Some people say, what if this isn't this praying in tongues? So listen, if you have the category in your theology for praying in tongues, then you have to admit that 1 Corinthians 12 says that not everyone has that gift.
And if right here he's saying, if all of you want to remain in the love of God, you need to pray in the Holy Spirit that He can't possibly be telling you to do something that not everyone has the gift. No, he's not talking about that. And if you have more questions about that, chat at millcitycasey.com. Listen, I'll talk to you about it. There are different things. We have a plurality of elders here.
We have multiple elders. We have different things that we're passionate about. That's just not something. He'd love to talk to you. Other things in theology you want to talk about? Let's go for it.
So, praying in the Holy Spirit. Third, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. If you want to remain in the love of God, we need to have a posture that is waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternity. Which means that the posture and the orientation of our soul is future looking. That your hope and your vision is on the mercy that awaits us into eternity. That your eye is on the prize.
Right? That's what it means to be forward looking as a Christian. Is that you're looking and awaiting for the day when one day Jesus will make all things new and judgment day will happen. And on that day when every record of wrong and every sin that we have in our lives has been read, that we as Christians point to the Lamb who was slain on our behalf. Point to Jesus who died for us on the cross. Point to the resurrection that gave us a new life in Christ.
Point to the mercy of our Lord that was poured out on us. We as Christians look forward to that day when we will point to the mercy of our God that leads into eternity. That we will be spared from the judgment that is to come because of what Christ has done. What Christ has done alone. The reason why that posture is so deeply important in the present is because if you have your, if your faith is so centered on that reality, on that day, on that eternity that awaits us, you will look at the present and the things that seek to destroy you. The sin and dwelling sin that's happening within and all of the things that seem appealing to your flesh.
You'd say, no, I don't want that. That pales in comparison to what awaits me. I will wait for the mercy of my Lord and Savior Christ. It leads me to eternity. My posture will be waiting for that. I don't want this.
No, I will wait. So he says, you want to remain in the love of God? Build. Pray. Wait. If we have that posture, those three things, that will enable us to do this last major calling that he calls us to, which is rescue.
We're called to rescue. Verse 22. And have mercy on those who doubt. Save others by snatching them out of the fire. To others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. So Jude has been going.
If you've been here the last few weeks, it's heavy. He's been going hard after these false teachers. He's been going hard after this false teaching that will corrupt the church. But he's not doing this so that he can be the one who's right. So that he can be the one who's vindicated.
So he can be the one that wins the debate. And if you think that's the posture of Jude, and if that's the posture of your own life, that you want to be the one who is right, you've completely misunderstood Jude and the Bible. That this warning that he gives us to remember, that this calling to remain in the love of God, is so that we can be a people that rescues. So that we can be a people where he says, have mercy on those who doubt. So that we can be merciful to those who are doubting.
Listen, following Jesus is hard. It is hard. And there are people who struggle. And there are people who go through seasons of darkness. There are people who, brothers and sisters, who doubt. And if you've ever been with someone who is struggling, mercy is sitting before them and pleading with them, please don't do this.
Please don't choose this path. Please don't go down that path. Don't do it. I'm telling you, Jesus is better. Please believe this. Don't choose sin.
And the picture that he gives here is so vivid. He says the picture is snatching them out of the fire. Snatching them out of the fire. I mean, that's someone who is looking over the cliff, looking over the cliff, indulging in their sin, starting to believe things that aren't true. And they don't see clearly the flames that are underneath that. And the self-destruction that's underneath that.
And you as a Christian are grabbing them by the shirt, saying, No. Don't do it. Please don't do it. I'm telling you, that doesn't lead to life. That leads to death. And you've got one hand that's clinging to Christ as you are snatching them out of the flame, saying, Please don't do this.
That's mercy. That's what we're called to and commanded to as Christians. Is to have that type of mercy that has one hand on them and one hand on Christ, saying, I will not let you go. That's what we're called to as Christians. That's the posture that we should have towards those who are doubting. Now, I love that he gives some additional coaching attached to that.
Because it goes on to say, To others, show mercy with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh. So the coaching that he gives is you've got one hand on them and one hand on Christ. He says, Listen, do this with fear. And what he means is with reverence. Understanding that we should not think of ourselves too highly in our faith to know that we can't be pulled into. That we should actually see the garment stained by the flesh and hate that.
We should hate the sin in others in a way that actually helps us see that we actually too are capable of falling into that as well. When I became a Christian years ago, I had two close friends. I don't know if I did the right thing, but I just, I had to, we had to stop hanging out. Because all we did together is we got high together. got high and did stupid things. I became a Christian and I was like, I, I, I thoroughly enjoyed that. I, and then my flesh is, is too strong and I am too weak.
And I had to remove myself. Because I was worried, I was concerned, I was fearfully, reverently trying to examine my own soul and realize how weak I was. And I think that's a little bit of what's happening here. We're called to show mercy, but with fear, hating even the garment stained by the flesh, hating the sin and realizing that it's capable of pulling us into. Some of y'all are merciful people. Some of y'all are loving people.
And it's incredible to see how patient you are with people. It's incredible to see how much you love the lost and how much you build your life around being missional. But one of the things I would say is to do it wisely. Because we should not be, think so highly of our own faith. That we can be in the world, be in the world, be in the world, be in the world. That we can run with people who are engaging sin without realizing it too can pull us in.
That is why you keep one hand on them, but you keep that hand firmly on Christ. And you make sure that everything that we do flows out of obedience to Him and you understand what is at stake. So, remember, remain, rescue. After verses and verses of just absolutely pounding on the dangers that is false teaching, pounding on the dangers that is the perverting of the grace into sensuality. After hammering that over and over again, He gives us this practical coaching that I think is so helpful for us at this moment in the American church. church. Because it is so easy to forget this.
There's some of you that get bitter. Some of you are worried and angsty about what's happening. About churches that are falling apart. About culture that's affecting Christians. And we're certainly called to take this seriously. But we get to do so from a non-anxious presence realizing this was always how it was going to be.
That's how it's been for 2,000 years. There's great movements of Christ and then there's opposition. And we're not thrown off by the opposition for a moment if we understand and remember what was so clearly taught in the New Testament. Some of you get so focused on those dangers. Some of you get so focused on what's out there that you don't do the things that are good for your soul. You're not regularly encountering Christ in this world.
You're not being men and women of prayer. You're not evaluating all of this waiting for the mercy of our God that is to come. Some of you devour podcasts and YouTube channels and Facebook posts and all kinds of things that just keep you worked up and keep you worked up and keep you worked up and keep you worked up. And if you could account for the hours that you spend doing that a week versus the hours that we spend doing the things that are good for our souls, you'd realize this command that needs to be obeyed and repentance needs to happen in our own lives. I was reading an article last week.
It was an article recounting Pastor Martin Lloyd-Jones which, by the way, if you want to know more about the Welsh pastor Martin Lloyd-Jones, mid-20th century pastor in the UK, Chet spent his whole sabbatical reading it, like reading his biography. He's like, I mean, I've heard about Martin Lloyd-Jones 15 times in the last 10 days. He's so excited. And Martin Lloyd-Jones, he's awesome. So I think if you want to learn more about him, go talk to Chet.
But I was reading, apart from that, I stumbled upon this article and I was like, okay, I was reading it and Martin Lloyd-Jones is recounting this time where he was getting coffee with another pastor. And this other pastor was the kind of pastor that, I mean, if he was here today, he would be the kind of guy who had like a YouTube channel that was calling out all the false teachers all the time and was talking about how the government's coming for us and Hollywood's coming for us. They'd be that kind of guy. So he's talking to this other pastor and they're getting coffee and this pastor says, hey, are you a great reader of Joseph Parker who was a 19th century pastor who also today would have a YouTube channel?
Are you a great reader of Joseph Parker? And Martin Lloyd-Jones said, no, I'm not. And the other pastor was like, why? Why are you not reading Joseph Parker? And Jones says, I don't get anything from him. Well, that other pastor was incredulous.
He's like, why? Why don't you get anything from him? And Jones just said, well, I mean, it's all very well to make these criticisms of the liberals. Now, pause for a second. When he says liberals, don't think our context liberals. He's talking about in the mid-20th century, this is, and the Anglican and the British churches, this would be the people that denied the word of God, said it wasn't true, and now those churches don't even exist.
So he just said, it's all very well to make these criticisms of the liberals, which is a big hundred-year fight in the British churches, but he doesn't help me spiritually. Jones says, he doesn't help me spiritually. And then that guy fired back and said, surely you are helped by the way he makes mince meat of the liberals. And I love how Jones responds. He says, no, I am not. You can make mince meat of the liberals and still be in trouble in your own soul.
You can be so focused on being the right one. You can have all the fights on Facebook. You can do all the things that make you more angsty, make you more worried, or you can obey what Jude commands here. You can remember that this is always going to happen and we will not be shocked. We will not be shocked. You can remain in the love of God by doing the things that are good for our souls, like regularly encountering him in his word and praying and being so fixated on the glory that awaits us that everything we do is in light of that reality.
And we can be merciful. Merciful Christians that engage, that plead, that snatch people out of the path that leads to destruction. And here's the thing. I don't know if the American church can grow in this. I have my doubts for a lot of different reasons, but I think we can. I've been so deeply encouraged the last few years of pastoring and seeing the people of this church who encounter God and his word that are growing and that are hungry and I just want to keep fan the flames of that.
Keep reading your Bibles and keep staying off the internet. I want to see us grow in praying. As an elder team, we're trying to work on this and being men who pray. I want to be a church that is regularly praying. I see a people that have perspective that do believe that Jesus is better than everything else and that's grounded in an eternal reality. And I see some believers who are merciful, who do plead with those who are struggling, who do care about the lost and I just want to keep fan of those flames.
Jude gives the playbook. We just got to be obedient to it.